Lauryn Hill shares Roberta Flack tribute: “Cool and intelligent, gentle and yet militant”
Lauryn Hill has shared a tribute to Roberta Flack, who died earlier this week at the age of 88.
“We are heartbroken that the glorious Roberta Flack passed away this morning,” Flack’s representatives wrote in a statement on Monday (February 24). “She died peacefully surrounded by her family. Roberta broke boundaries and records. She was also a proud educator.”
Hill – whose hit single with Fugees, ‘Killing Me Softly With His Song’, serves as a cover of Flack’s own 1973 rendition – shared the Instagram post yesterday (February 26).
“Whitney Houston once said to me that Roberta Flack’s voice was one of the purest voices she’d ever heard,” she began. “I grew up scouring the records my Parents collected. Mrs. Flack was one of their favorites and quite instantly became one of mine as soon as I was exposed to her. She looked cool and intelligent, gentle and yet militant.”
Hill continued to add that Flack’s music “fascinated me with their beauty and sophistication”, and that the artist “moved me and showed me through her own creative choices and standards what else was possible within the idiom of Soul”.
On ‘Killing Me Softly’, Hill revealed that their 1996 breakout hit was made “to honor the beauty and brilliance of this song and her performance of it to our generation.”
“I will forever be grateful for the sensitivity and delicate power of her Love and Artistry. Rest in Grace Beloved One.” See the post below.
Flack’s official cause of death has not been shared, although it is worth noting that the singer had been battling ALS for the past three years.
Her career-defining 1973 album, also named ‘Killing Me Softly’, saw her take home Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Performance at the 1974 Grammys and reach the top of the charts.
Flack was honoured with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020, and went on to announce her amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) diagnosis in 2022 – a neurodegenerative disease that impacts the nerves in the brain and spinal cord, it sadly left Flack unable to sing.
Her final years saw her work on projects including a children’s book and a documentary about her life. The latter was titled Roberta, and was shared in November 2022, while the children’s book, The Little Green Piano: How Little Me Found Music, arrived the following year.
In total, she was given 13 Grammy nods throughout her career, with the last coming in 1995 for ‘Roberta’, which was nominated for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance (via Variety). She is survived by her son Bernard Wright, who is also a musician.
Just last week, Lauryn Hill performed ‘Killing Me Softly’ at the Saturday Night Live 50th anniversary show with Fugees compatriot Wyclef Jean. The moment was captured by Adele, who shared a clip of her singing along to the song.
The third Fugees member, Pras – who is currently facing 20 years in prison following a guilty verdict over his involvement in a money laundering scheme – recently declared that he’s “done” with the group.
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Daniel Peters
NME
